Victory in Melbourne 

Before there was “The Special One”, there was Brian Howard Clough, who was considered by many to be of the greatest managers of the English game and the greatest English manager never to manage the national side.

Despite his success with both Derby County and Nottingham Forest, its Clough’s spectacularly disastrous forty-four spell day at Leeds United in 1974 that provided author David Peace with much fodder for his fictionalised account of the events in The Damned United.

The book which was originally published in 2006, was released this year as a feature film with Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon, The Twilight Saga: New Moon) in the lead role. Now that I have read the book and seen the film I thought it would be an appropriate time to review them both.

As I alluded to before, The Damned United tracks Clough’s unsuccessful stint as manager at Leeds United and in particular his obsession with his predecessor at the Yorkshire club, Don Revie. This obsession can be traced back to Clough’s time at Derby County, with events from this time being interspersed with those happening at Leeds United, providing much background to why Clough is the man that he is. It also focuses on Clough’s close relationship with his Peter Taylor, who was his assistant at Hartlepools, Derby and Nottingham Forest with whom he had a falling out over his choice to manage Leeds.

And I must note that the performance of Michael Sheen is absolutely brilliant and should be worthy of an Oscar nomination, or at the very least a BAFTA. He captures the very essence of Brian Clough - the arrogance, the charisma and the biting wit. Another who’s performance is worthy of note, is that of Colm Meaney (Star Trek fans/geeks will recognise that name) as Don Revie, in fact he is the spitting image of him. When I saw the real Don Revie in the clip below I couldn’t believe my eyes.

As with all film adaptations of books there is always and discrepancies and differences between them, the most glaring of which is the film’s failure to acknowledge Clough’s well documented drinking problem, of which there is constant reference in the book. However, both are brilliant works of fiction (with some basis in fact) because at its heart lies a great story and a charismatic lead character. Both the film and the book will appeal to football fans the most, even my contemporaries who may only have a vague idea or memory of who Brian Clough is – although I’m not sure if the many Leeds fans out there will want to see it.

Not everyone was as pleased with the work as myself, with Johnny Giles successfully suing David Peace and the Clough family also expressing their displeasure at the portrayal.

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A few weeks back I finished reading Eduardo Galeano’s seminal piece on football, “Football In Sun and Shadow”. Galeano, one of Uruguay’s finest writers and a football tragic to boot, has written a book that contains a series of vignettes about players, World Cups, goals and any aspect of the game that has captured his imagination over the years.

Originally written in Spanish in 1995, the edition that I read has been updated to include Galeano’s thoughts on both the 1998 and 2002 World Cups and the problems he sees with the current game. Obviously, I was reading the English version, but I do hope that one day my Spanish will be good enough so I can read the original. Also it appears that my version was published with an American (or maybe Australian) audience in mind as football has been replaced with soccer in the translation.

Overall, I thought the book was brilliant as Galeano’s choice of the vignette as a method of description allows him to cover a broad range of events and topics in what is not really a large volume. It also captures one man’s obsession with a game that he couldn’t quite master as a player and he writes in his introduction:

Like all Uruguayan children, I wanted to be a football player. I played quite well, in fact I was terrific, but only at night when I was asleep. During the day I was worst wooden leg ever to set foot on the little football fields of my country … Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football. I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: “A pretty move, for the love of God.”

As you would expect the book has a distinctive Latin American flavour, and being a big fan of football on the South American continent and a bit of latinophile I definitely lapped this up. One aspect I particularly enjoyed was when Galeano was writing about the World Cups, he would give a description of world events at that time to give the event its context. It also allows Galeano to provide us with some humour as in his description for every World Cup from 1962 onwards he writes:

Well-informed sources in Miami announced the imminent fall of Fidel Castro, it was only a matter of hours.

So it goes without saying that I highly recommend this book to all football tragics like Galeano and myself, you won’t be disappointed.

More often than not football and film do not make a good mix but with Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait the combination is almost perfect. The film is the creation of Turner winning artist and filmmaker Douglas Gordon and French artist Philippe Parreno and is a study of one man, Zinedine Zidane.

This film is brilliantly executed as seventeen cameras follow the every movement that Zidane makes during the course of a La Liga match between Real Madrid and Villareal in the Santiago Bernabeau Stadium.

What makes this film so good is that Zidane is captured from a range of viewpoints, from extreme close-ups to aerial views and every view in between. This not only allows the viewer to see Zizou as he moves around the field and gets involved in the play but also allows a glimpse of the various mannerisms of this intriguing player. It gives us a glimpse of how vulnerable, tiring, calculated and almost lonesome a footballer can be whilst out on the pitch doing their thing.

A soundtrack that encompasses crowd noise, ambient sounds, Zidane’s breathing and the music of Scottish group, Mogwai, compliments the footage. On occasions this soundtrack is interrupted by the voice of Zidane himself as he talks about what he does and doesn’t remember from the matches that he is involved in.

My only disappointment is that I didn’t get around to seeing this film on the big screen and only watched it at home. The reason being that this film is probably better suited to the big screen and its ability to make things larger than life. Hopefully, it gets a rerun somewhere and I do get that opportunity.

A film well worth checking out for both football fans and lovers of fine cinema. I’m not sure what David and Margaret gave this film, but I give it five stars.

Two books that I have read recently are worthy of a joint review as they both deal with the same subject matter, being a spectator at the FIFA World Cup. The two books being Dancing In The Streets: Tales from World Cup City by Don Watson and Australia United by Tony Wilson.

Dancing In The Streets is the story of Don Watson, a Scotsman, who follows Celtic and Leeds and his journey to the USA to follow the fortunes of Ireland at the 1994 World Cup. Twelve years later, Wilson does a similar thing and follows the fortunes of Australia at the 2006 World Cup and tells us his story in Australia United.

It is probably stating the obvious that both books are by their very subject matter, similar in nature and style. Where the two books do differ is in their location and how the locals react to the event. For Wilson he is in football mad Germany where everyone is absorbed by all the events of the tournament and wants to talk about it. In contrast, Watson is in a country that on a whole, is largely disinterested in the event and often he struggles to find bars that will show the games on TV as in New York particularly, they are more interested in the fortunes of their basketball team, the New York Knicks in the NBA playoffs than they are in their national football team.

For most of us, we will probably never get the chance to go to a World Cup and these two authors capture perfectly what it is like to be at the event that we will have been watching on television. Both Watson and Wilson manage to get to their respective World Cup Finals and the events leading up to and at the final are well worth the read especially Wilson’s mad rush through the streets of Berlin makes for hilarious reading. Just as entertaining is Watson’s “inter-racial” warfare with the Tongs, who object to him standing up at the final.

Both books are well worth the read and it was nice to reminisce and remember the events of the two tournaments, especially the 1994 event, whose memories were a little less clear than those of two years ago. Myself along with a friend with all things going to plan hope to attend the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, hopefully our experiences are just as enriching as those in these books.

There has been a severe lack of motivation lately on my part to write anything of substance down in recent times. This is probably due to a combination of work pressures and social and sporting commitments. Although to be fair I still have been writing about football, just not on these pages. And who would have thought that after the end of the A-League season that I would be watching more football than during it. I have been in attendance at all of my newly adopted team, Richmond’s first four games in the VPL which included on away trip to Fawkner. Plus doing some match reports on other games means that on most weekends I will be watching at least two games of football.

I have also been doing a fair bit of reading, most of it not necessarily football related but I am halfway through Australia United by Tony Wilson (only halfway through because my girlfriend has borrowed it and is now reading it herself) and finished off Pele: The Autobiography (Simon & Schuster, 2006). The Ball Is Round by David Goldblatt is also taunting me from my bookshelf but its number of pages and comprehensiveness is scaring me a little.

Back to that book about Pele, a player many consider to be the best that has ever been. For me, Diego Maradona is the best only because I got to see him play at his best (only on TV mind you). The book is an enjoyable read and of course it is an amazing story and is probably a better read than Maradona’s own autobiography. One thing that amazed me was the number of exhibition matches that were played by Pele with his club Santos. Unfortunately for Santos they have never really again reached the dizzying heights they achieved with Pele again since his departure. For the most part, Pele is pretty up front with the things that going on in and around football but I would have to agree with Hamish, that his current career is reducing his ability to be so candid. Pele’s achievements will probably never be challenged and to read about how these records were achieved is truly riveting reading. A must read for all football fans.

Nick Hornby and I have a few things in common: we both love football; we both have an appreciation for music; and most obviously we have the both the same first initial. Why the comparison? The reason being I have just finished reading Hornby’s Fever Pitch, an autobiographical account of his obsession with Arsenal from his first game until 1992, when the book comes to an end. This book came highly recommended from fellow football fans and I read it not long after another Hornby book, 31 Songs. 

Fever Pitch is an excellent read and extremely well written (as you would expect from a writer of Hornby’s calibre) as Hornby details the growth of his obsession with all things Arsenal and its subsequent impact on his life. The book obviously appeals to most football fans as they can see part of themselves in Hornby’s writings. Also because of the way it is written the book has also appealed to non-football obsessives, my girlfriend included, because they see in Hornby some of the traits that they see in their husbands, wives, girlfriends and boyfriends. The book is of course a little out of date as it was written back in 1992. I wonder if Hornby still has that obsession for Arsenal, a team I abhorred during the 1990s but now for which I have a grudging respect for their style of play under Arsene Wenger.

Reading Fever Pitch also makes one analyse or question their own football obsession or interest. I like to think that my interest is not as obsessive as that of Hornby’s and that my life doesn’t revolve around football or a particular team. My girlfriend probably begs to differ and often complains about how much time I spend talking about football, reading about football, blogging about football and trawling forums about football. I like to remind her that I did give up going to one home game this season (my first ever) for her birthday but that apparently doesn’t cut much shrift as I didn’t give it up that easily. And whereas, Hornby devotes all his interest to one team and little else, my interest spreads to all aspects of football, both at club and international level and inside and outside of Australia. It will be interesting to see how my interest level changes in the years to come as I get older and my lifestyle changes.

If you haven’t read Fever Pitch yet its well worth checking out.

Its not often that I make my way to the local library, preferring to buy books for future reference and reading. However, recently the local library was paid a visit and I came away with a number of books*, one of them being by Gordon Burn (Faber and Faber, 2006). Best and Edwards tells the story of two of the greatest talents to ever pull on a Manchester United jersey, George Best and Duncan Edwards and how both their careers ended in dramatic fashion. Edwards, who died in the Munich air disaster of 1958 and Best, who quit United at the age of 27 and then proceeded to drink himself into oblivion for the next 30 years.

Edwards, who died at the age of 21, was considered by many to be the greatest talent going around. It is said that if he hadn’t died in Munich, we would be speaking of him now in the same breadth as Pele and Maradona. Best, will be forever known as Northern Ireland’s greatest ever player and described by Pele as the most skillful he had ever seen and remember he had played with Garincha. Best was part of a team that made Manchester United a force in Europe, culminating in the European Cup title in 1968. What links these two men is that the both played under United great, Sir Matt Busby, who is quoted on the dust jacket of the book as saying:

“Every manager goes through life looking for one great player, praying he’ll find one. Just one. I was more lucky than most. I found two - Big Duncan and George. I suppose in their own ways, the both died, didn’t they?”

The book is basically divided into two, the first covers the brief but brilliant career of Edwards and the second, the rise and then fall of Best. The chapters on Best highlight the cult of celebrity of footballers that basically started with Best and clearly illustrates its downfalls if the player is unable to deal with it. Burn in his writing can tend be a little winded at times. Chapter 6 is a case in point which drags on for a sometimes tedious sixty pages. Interspersed amongst the stories of the two players are extracts from books used to demonstrate certain points which only seem to demonstrate Burn’s mostly fictional writing background. These are a bit unnecessary and detracts from what else is a fairly good book.

This book will probably be mostly appeal to fans of British football and Manchester United. It is also good starting point for those who want to know more about these two talented players, but for a more detailed description of their playing days is mostly likely to found elsewhere.

Coincidentally, this is the 100th post I have written for Victory In Melbourne in 242 days, therefore averaging a post every 2.42 days. Some have been good, some bad, some so-so and some difficult to write whilst others have been easy. Thankyou to all who choose to read my writings and occasional rantings, hopefully you stay with me for another 100 posts or more.

* - one of the others was by Nick Hornby - will be reading that one shortly.